The H-Prize

Legislation to create and fund an “H-Prize” has been re-introduced in the 110th Congress (S. 365, 3 co-sponsors, HR 632, 37 co-sponsors). The bills would “authorize the Secretary of Energy to establish monetary prizes for achievements in overcoming scientific and technical barriers associated with hydrogen energy.”

Prizes would be given in the following areas:

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The Aachen Innovation Prize

The prize is not huge (5,000 Euros), but the purposes and winners are interesting. According to this account:

The city of Aachen and the district (Kreis) of Aachen have conferred the Aachen Innovation Prize jointly since the year 2000. From 1992 until 1999 it was granted by the city of Aachen alone under the name of the “City of Aachen Prize for Innovation and Technology”.

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WHA approves resolution on IGWG

According to Thiru Balasubramaniam, the WHA has now adopted a resolution on the WHO’s Intergovernmental Working Group (IGWG) on Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property. We are waiting for the official text. However, it seemed better than many had predicted earlier this week. The U.S., while not blocking the resolution, noted it did not join the consensus on the text. Now attentions will turn to the WHO’s next move, which will be the July draft of the global strategy and plan of action.

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Peter Pitts doesn’t like the KSR decision, or prizesP

Peter Pitts doesn’t like the KSR decision, and he also doesn’t like prizes. His recent Spectator article says:

DISTURBINGLY, SOME FOLKS ARE now advocating a “prize” system where there are no drug patents. Instead, the government would pay a drug maker a lump sum for its innovation, and then the new drug would immediately be placed in the public domain.

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